Abstract:
Pangolins are threatened by overexploitation for local and international use. They are
subject to an international commercial trade ban, and are also the focus of other interventions,
including attempts at commercial captive breeding. The impact that the latter
could have on the conservation of wild populations deserves consideration. We critically
evaluate the feasibility of commercial captive breeding (or farming) of pangolins to
displace wild collection and assess its potential conservation impact on pangolin conservation using a recently published framework developed for this purpose. Of the 17
conditions posited that need to be met for supply-side interventions to displace wild
collection, we find that pangolins meet a maximum of only six conditions. This analysis
suggests that pangolin farming will not displace wild collection in the near future. Major
barriers include an inability to breed pangolins on a commercial scale and available data
suggest that it would be unprofitable. The immediate impact of pangolin farming on
conservation of the species’ is unclear, but it is unlikely to benefit the conservation of wild
populations. If commercial captive breeding were possible, it is uncertain how it would
affect economic incentives for poaching, interactions between legal and illegal markets,
stockpile policies, and how consumers and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners
would respond. To understand better the potential overall impact of pangolin
farming on wild populations there is a need for further research on these uncertainties.
The framework used has utility in analysing the potential impact of wildlife farming but
there remains a need for a more robust approach to evaluate potential impacts of supplyside
interventions.
